U.S. Voter Turnout
May 1, 2014
Cooper Riley
POLS 1100
May 1, 2014
U.S. voter turnout is lower than many other democratic countries. Is this a
concern? How can voter turnout be increased? What would need to be done to make that
happen?
1
U.S. Voter Turnout
May 1, 2014
U.S. Voting Issues
As an American society, we have become more and more lazy because the evolution
of technology has allowed us to do so. As technology now drives just about every aspect
of our lives, we are heavily influenced by it and its properties. As technology has become
more and more convenient we as a society expect everything else to keep up and be just
as convenient as the newest technology. We have spoiled ourselves into what, at times
may be called a false reality.
“Convenience impacts voter turnout. In the United States, in all but one state,
voters must go through a separate registration process before voting, and the vast
majority of states do not allow Election Day registration. This two-step process -register, then vote -- is more complicated than the process in many other countries and
discourages some Americans from voting” (Friedman, 2012). If we are a country that is
constantly using new technology to get things done, why have we not converted to
electronic voting? Due to the fact that the American culture is consistently on the go (fast
food restaurants feed this thought process) electronic voting is sure to turn out a
significant more amount of voters. If we look at American Idol, Dancing with the Stars,
America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, all of these shows use electronic
voting and each week they receive millions of votes. These shows are popular not just
because they are fun to watch, but because the represent that anyone can accomplish their
dream. That is the American culture at it’s best, and electronic voting gives an
opportunity to have a much larger voting pool.
2
U.S. Voter Turnout
May 1, 2014
Another issue that drives Americans away from the polls is their faith in the
current political system. Americans today have trouble believing in the current political
system because it takes so much time to produce results. As I mentioned earlier, we live
in a world of now, therefore if the political system does not produce a “now” solution,
then people lose faith. Take for example the recent crisis of the America almost
defaulting on loans to other countries because we had reached our debt ceiling.
Americans were extremely upset with the Government shutdown because it caused an
inconvenience to them. The politicians have known for quite some time that we would be
facing this issue, but yet hardly any measures have been taken to prevent more debt
occurring. Americans believe that it should not take a year or two in order to have a law
voted in effect, but it does because of our political system.
Large portions of Americans have simply lost faith in the political candidates that
are running for office each election term. “Ultimately many voters do not take part
because they think voting makes little difference. They don't see themselves with a stake
in the country to be tended at the polling booth” (Moberg, 1989). “Just 37 percent say
they have either a good amount or a great deal of confidence in the president to make the
right decisions for the country’s future, while 63 percent say they do not….. Confidence
in Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, is even lower than for President
Obama. Twenty-seven percent say they have confidence in Democrats to make the right
decisions for the country, while 72 percent do not, and just 19 percent have confidence in
Republicans, while 80 percent do not. Almost half lack confidence in all three.” (Balz,
2014). Based upon these quotes and statistics, we see that the American people have lost
faith in the voting system because they believed these candidates would be the best
3
U.S. Voter Turnout
May 1, 2014
representatives for them in our government’s decisions. They trusted what the leaders
actions would do, benefit the people, and they were burned.
As it is known in the amendments of the constitution of the United States, each
presidential candidate has the option to accept money from the government to support the
campaign, or they can use privately funded money. It would logically be foolish to accept
a sum of money from the government with the rule not to accept ANY private donations
from anyone. As the government sum has a limit and private donations do not, it is clear
that if a candidate chooses not to accept private donations they will lose based simply on
the principle of not enough money. We live in a nation where the media drives just about
all social and political communication to the people is controlled by specific people or
corporations. Those corporations often heavily favor one political candidate because that
candidate will support their agenda.
With money and the media driving the public opinion, why would we not try to
keep control of one of the two? If the government were to change the voting and election
laws regarding accepting private donations to fund a campaign, it would give a lot more
people the opportunity to run for office. This would create a larger voting pool for the
American people to decide on. Some Americans are not interested in voting simply
because they do not agree with any of the candidates who are listed on the final ballot.
With a cap on campaign spending, this would allow other people the opportunity to run
for office, thus reducing the influence of large corporations with their own political
agenda.
In conclusion I feel that the best ways to help our voter turnout would be to 1.
Revoke voting law allowing privately funded campaigns, 2. Establish credibility of
4
U.S. Voter Turnout
May 1, 2014
voting system to young generation, 3. Include on the voting ballet “I vote for no
candidate listed”, 4. Incorporate social media to encourage voting. These factors would
drastically improve our voter turnout each election.
Bibliography
Balz, D. (2014, January 25). The Washington Post Politics. Retrieved from The
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-finds-little-faithin-nations-leaders/2014/01/25/a94d69c4-8534-11e3-9dd4e7278db80d86_story.html
Friedman, H. S. (2012, July 10). Huff Post Politics. Retrieved from Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/voter-turnout-europeamerica_b_1660271.html
Moberg, D. (1989, February 9). Reader News and Politics. Retrieved from Reader:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/reading-why-dont-americansvote/Content?oid=873390
5